The Sage's Perspective
by Rikkudo
Summary: The Sage of Six Paths never died. After the creation of the moon, the gods whisked him away, preserving him in a dimension of their own design. And so he endured for two millennia. But every so often, the Sage could see the world through his descendants' eyes. He could not idly stand by as he witnessed the crimes of Uchiha Madara firsthand. Time-Travel, in a way.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note****: This was created after I finally got some fresh information about the Rikudō Sennin. Basically, it's about the Sage of Six Paths looking down on the Narutoverse from his own personal dimension. I hope you guys like the prologue! Also, this is a bit AU in that I've chosen to completely ignore canon. **

The Sage's Perspective

Prologue

In the two millennia that he'd been stuck in his personal dimension, the Rikudō Sennin was blind to the world. In exchange for preserving his mind, body and soul, he had been imprisoned by the gods for purposes unknown to him. For countless generations, the sage never once escaped his divine-made cage on the pain of death. He was still needed alive, so he never risked his own destruction.

But there was a bright side.

Almost as compensation for his confinement, the sage got visions, perhaps once a generation. But if he was extremely lucky, he was able to view the world through one of his descendents eyes, if only for a few moments. But the glimpses he had seen greatly dismayed him. They were all visions of bloodshed, scenes of heightened violence.

Some involved shinobi using _his_ techniques ruthlessly against innocent people. Countless jutsu that had been created to protect the world were instead actively destroying it. It was fortunate that he was in his own dimension, because there had been several times where he could not control his fury toward his descendents. Had he been on the mortal plane, the world would have torn asunder before his ripple-like eyes.

However, his visions seemed to be concentrated almost entirely within a single population. The clan with those strange red eyes, the Uchiha.

It appeared that after his death, his older son was consumed by his betrayal. His burning hatred had actually warped the Rinnegan, diluting its power in his children and their children after.

Eventually, the warping of the Rinnegan advanced so that only the individuals who had known true sorrow and loss, or even betrayal, were able to activate it. Naturally, this version of the Rinnegan was inferior to the original. Eyes dyed red with hatred, three spinning tomoe surrounding the pupil in a never ending dance of bloodshed. _Sharingan_.

The Sennin's own Rinnegan was a gift of the gods, destined to bring peace and salvation to a war-torn world. The sage guessed that the gods had put a fail-safe on the dōjutsu, and he was right. The gods ensured that those who used the eyes in hatred could never truly pass on its power.

As the generations passed, the Uchiha, as they had started to call themselves, had devolved the Rinnegan to the point of being unrecognizable. Their eyes turned blood red, with three tomoes surrounding the pupils whenever activated. This new dōjutsu did not even compare to the Samsara eyes in power, as it had lost much of the original abilities of the Rinnegan, but there was something more.

This new eye had the ability to memorize anything: jutsus, taijutsu styles, even writing, all in a flash. Genjutsu was worse than useless against the Uchiha clan, because they eyes instantly recognized and destroyed any falsehoods they came across. However, they were still only activated by loss and hatred.

After that point, the Sharingan went through no dramatic changes for the course of the next millennia-and-a-half. That is, until the sage saw through the eyes of Madara Uchiha. The very next day after he saw through Madara's eyes, the Sage of Six Paths ripped through his prison like a blade scythes through grass.

He was going back.


	2. Chapter 2

The world darkened as Hashirama and Madara clashed. The skies rumbled with thunder and the trees bowed to the raging gales, lest they be torn asunder. The very ground shook with the punishing force of blow after blow.

And then two giants parted, facing each other from the rim of a gigantic crater. They were strong, tall, and incredibly robust. One had long straight brown hair and reached his waist and the other had a spiky black mane that rivaled the other's in length.

After a moment of silence, the brown-haired man took a step forward. "It doesn't have to be this way Madara!"

The other man didn't reply, just staring with cold black eyes.

Then they were at it again, fists clenched and chakra blazing. Rumbles in the ground gave a moment's notice before the ground errupted with trees; all growing at an unbelievable rate; all of the sharp, lethal ends racing towards Madara with clear intent.

But Madara just smirked at his impending doom as the man before him directed the technique, "You know, Hashirama . . ." Gigantic wooden spears were launched towards his form in an avalanche that he couldn't hope to escape, but then something changed. Madara looked up, his eyes swirling with red, his form burning with power.

The spears were knocked away like twigs as they were deflected off of an impenetrable armor. Madara Uchiha watched in utter confidence as his long-time rival looked upon the might of the Susano'o. "You're not the only one who's developed new techniques!"

And the battle was on, Senju vs Uchiha, but it was a whole new level than had ever been seen before.


	3. Chapter 3

Everything blurred. Stars were mere specks of light, asteroids and meteors just flashes of brown and which. They were all blasted out of his path as he crashed right through them, not even bothering to try to avoid them.

After all, what did a man like him really have to fear?

He was the Savior, God-Slayer. He was the man that had unified the entire world, however briefly—the Sage of Six Paths.

And he lunged through space with a single-minded determination.

After what seemed like days of nothing but space-rocks and dust, he encountered his first star. It was a strange thing, spherical and full of burning gas. He could feel the heat, the _life_ shining from deep within.

It made him marvel for hours, but in the end he moved on—he was running out of time.

Blood, fire, and death. Not much had changed since his passing. That same atrocity called war still plagued the land. People still killed one another, and worse yet, they used chakra—the sacred energy—to do it.

It made his blood boil to have seen his descendants using his techniques in such vile ways. There would be _hell_ to pay when he finally got back to Earth.

* * *

After days of travel, he'd finally made it. The sage allowed himself to limber up his joints as he looked down upon the world spread out before him with the sun waking his back and shoulders. Ah, how he'd missed the sun. And the Earth too. These blues and greens were a sight for sore eyes for someone who'd seen naught but white for millennia.

After a moment of hovering there and enjoying the view, the sage took off with a blast of sheer power, racing towards his homeland. Today, he would take the world by storm, consequences be damned.

* * *

Uchiha Madara grunted in pain as his brother tightened the bandages around his ribs. He glared, and his younger brother quailed under his gaze.

"Sorry, nii-san!"

Madara relaxed with a long-suffering sigh. "It's not your fault." Suppressing the urge to groan, he got up and began putting his armor back on. "Gather the clan. We leave at dawn."

"B-but, nii-san! It's only been a day! With wounds like yours, you shou—"

"I just gave you an order, Otoutou."

"Hai . . ."

Madara sighed as his little bother left the room.

* * *

Hashirama winced as his wife poked a shoulder. "Ooh, not there, Mito. It hurts like crazy!"

A red eyebrow raised. "Ohoooo, so the big bad Hashirama can heal all by himself?"

The Senju clan leader wilted under her critical gaze, and she smirked triumphantly. "Is that a no? Excellent! Now don't speak until I tell you to!" Saying so, the Uzumaki woman slapped her husband upstairs the head before resuming the healing session.

Hashirama groaned.

"What was that?"

"N-Nothing! Nothing at all! Ahahahahahaha!"


End file.
